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Screw the meta, I wan't to enjoy myself! But how?

Kushmeyer2·2/24/2015, 4:03:13 AM·1 votes·1,359 views

This is a post about Nemesis Draft. Skip to the last paragraph if you want to see the point of all this writing.

I don't play Lol regularly anymore. I only play with friends and even then we play once or twice a month. Despite that my match history is filled to the brim with recent games - all of them Nemesis Draft. I come back to play new game modes, but usually I do 2-4 games and I'm done. Hexakill was neat, Doom Bots was neat, and Poro King was okay. The thing is none of those had the ability to make a tired old player (proudly playing since 2009) come back and not just play the game but hop into a solo queue game and have a blast - win or lose.

The reason I had so much fun was it was the most unique thing I've ever seen in LoL. I'm going to risk sounding like an old fogey saying this but I'm sick of seeing the same champs playing the same roles every game and I miss pre-season one championship games. When I hopped into Nemesis Draft I saw 10 champions I hadn't seen in ages. There was even a Zac in our game. I hadn't seen a Zac since the month of his release. We sent 2 bot, 1 mid, 1 top, and 1 jungle. None of us were conventional picks though. We had melees in every position and had to decide in champ select who would go to which lane and what build we would go. Lots of us talked in all chat and we worked hard as a team to overcome the challenges given to us by the enemy picks. We earned our victory and both us and the other team had fun. That, generally, is how all but one of my Nemesis Draft games went.

Champion select in normal games is pure silence after the "mid" "top" "ad" calls are said. Occasionally a marksman will tell the last pick which support he wants them to play. Games are silent, players all use safe builds on safe champions with established strategies. Breaking the meta and having a bad game can even get you banned.

Riot says they don't like to keep game modes permanent so that other queues don't suffer, so they don't keep stacking on game modes, and so the modes are fresh in people's minds when they are made/make a comeback. I think there is a way to keep their goals intact while letting players like myself enjoy the game the way we like. It's in custom games. Custom games have always been neglected by Riot, but they could finally make a comeback by allowing players to play the unconventional game modes in them at any time. I hate to bring up Dota2 since I don't even play it, but all my previous LoL friends have abandoned me for that game because they can play not just different game modes but entirely different games inside the Dota2 engine. I'd like to have something similar in LoL: a place where people who aren't looking for serious games/serious practice to safely have fun doing silly things. Custom games as they are now don't provide that, and nothing else does either.

24 Comments

Jivvie2/24/2015, 4:17:11 AM2 votes

Seriously, go to DOTA 2. The ONLY reason I still play League is because it is "cool" and casual. What annoys me is the gay balance and a few other gripes but I deal with it. I don't even playt competitively as I did before.

DOTA 2 is literally a better game in EVERY SINGLE aspect. Every. Everything Riot does, Valve does it better, including server management. Not downing Riot, that is just how things are. Want skins? They have many. CHEAPER. And you can buy from other players. Want faceroll characters? They have a character for every players playstyle. Don't want to focus on typing to your teammates all game? DOTA has Voice chat. Just speak up. Don't be shy. DOTA2 is how a MOBA SHOULD be played. And it is very much focused on SOLO as well as team play. Hell, you can't even duo in DOTA2 and call it Solo MMR. I can go on but... I pretty much hit home.

SlytherMinn2/24/2015, 4:05:53 AM1 votes

So go play Dota 2.

Matthias91192/24/2015, 4:17:51 AM1 votes

One problem is that a lot of the custom modes (URF, Ascension, One For All, etc.) are somewhat buggy, often requiring them to disable some champs (and even then there are still some issues). They'd have to keep testing them with new champs to make sure they don't break anything, which is a big pain. Although Nemesis Draft didn't seem to have any issues, and seems like it shouldn't have any problems going forwards if they kept it as a draft option in Custom matches.

They also want to keep them interesting, and most of the custom modes they've had are pretty shallow. After a few weeks people would figure out the best strategies and they would get just as boring as the "normal" game on that basis. I think that Ascension and Nemesis Draft have the most potential for strategic depth of the temporary modes they've put out, but they're probably still not quite good enough to make the cut as permanent queues.

Aratez Treaty2/24/2015, 4:38:33 AM1 votes

Now, to actually contribute, what if Riot came out with a New Potential Maps every one to two years. Like previously stated, they can be buggy, and they have to constantly check them with new skins and champions, along with new items every now and then. The community could comment on what they want to see, and eventually, there would be a new map. They have a skin vault, why not a map vault? If a game map on a new game mode is really successful with the community, they could put it down for a potential permanent home in LoL.

SLangedEdge2/24/2015, 7:37:13 PM1 votes

In LoL you're just gonna have to party up and get everyone on the same page. The Meta is baked in that everyone is expecting to play the meta and would be pretty mad if you diverge from it.

LoL is just such a one dimensional game. Champs are balanced with the meta in mind. They even make snap changes to further support their meta, like the tower changes they made previously to protect the 1-1-2-j and keep ppl from reversing the lane.

You want true meta flexibility, play dota.